


Motherly Instincts

by felpereBRanco



Series: One Shots [6]
Category: The Boys (TV 2019), X-23 (Comic), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Canon, Animal Instincts, Animalistic, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Body Language, Canon-Typical Violence, Explicit Language, Feral Behavior, First Meetings, Gen, Maternal Instinct, Pack Bonding, Pack Dynamics, Parental Instinct, Sign Language, Silence, Stabbing, no beta we die lik men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:42:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29832018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/felpereBRanco/pseuds/felpereBRanco
Summary: Weapon X-23 thought she was the last. That killing all her siblings so they wouldn't suffer the horrors of the Facility meant she would never again meet anyone who understood her like Logan does.But then, she meets The Female of the Species.
Relationships: The Female | Kimiko Miyashiro &; X-23 | Laura Kinney
Series: One Shots [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1858066
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	1. Instinct

**Author's Note:**

> This follows post S1 canon loosely. Very loosely. I honestly just wanted to have these two incredible characters meet, hopefully some of you do too!

Laura rolled into cover the minute her feet touched the ground, managing to make the move look graceful despite feeling nothing like it. She was twelve, Logan -  _ Father _ , as she took to calling him in her mind - had brought her to the Institute only a few weeks ago,  _ “You gotta be with kids your age. _ ” he explained. “ _ Learn to socialize and shit. It ain’t something you’ll get from being with a killer like me.” _

She had slipped under an office desk, inside a small unlit room that wouldn’t look out of place in a ghost town. Behind her, a giant machine sparked and hissed before shorting out. She didn’t pop her head out of cover, focusing on her hearing to pick out the five pairs of footsteps, one female, one definitely military. 

She hated it, of course. The loud bells, the constant talking, the people trying to ask her about the Facility, she didn’t understand them, she didn’t understand why she had to. She was a killer, just like Father, couldn’t she just stick with him and kill whoever came after them? The only thing she liked about the institute was the danger room, and even then, it was too easy. She had to constantly pull her claws back because the teenagers couldn’t keep up, and everyone looked at her weird when she completed all the courses in a single flawless run. 

“What the fuck was that, Frenchie?” A loud, gruff voice called out from the far side of the room, the military man, with the scent of blood on his skin like a butcher after a long day of work. Laura used the desk as a springboard to grab the pipes in the ceiling, hoisting herself up so she could blend with the dark background. A younger man came in her direction as she waited with bated breaths, wearing a green hoodie. 

She had been playing the villain against the X-Men's B-Team in the Danger Room’s highest setting when one of Blink's portals took her by surprise, opening up under her feet. 

“I- I- I don’t know, it just turned on out of nowhere!” Answered another man from the far side of the room.

She didn’t know where she landed, but the Facility taught her to always assume hostile intentions. If this was another test, some kind of exercise, she trusted the team to pull her out before she did “immoral” things that they didn’t want her to do. The man stopped under her, she waited a second before pushing off the ceiling, dropping down with fists closed - But no claws just yet.

She didn’t notice the female until it was too late, when she appeared grappling Laura out of the guy’s way in midair. They spun twice before landing on a table hard enough to shatter it in pieces. Laura groaned, feeling a finger pop into place, then threw herself up with a snarl. The woman answered in kind, and they clashed again 

It was wild, primal. The way they circled each other, cutting and stabbing with every limb in a desperate struggle for domination. For Laura, it was like stepping back into the pit of the Facility, like the men in white coats throwing wolves, bears and other mutants into the ring to test her reaction times, her  _ performance _ . It was like that one time they pit her against herself, against a clone a bit taller than she had been at the time, X-17. 

It took her a moment to notice her claws shining with blood.

She swept the ground with a sharp talon but the woman jumped over her leg. She grabbed the hands vaulting over her shoulder before her opponent could break her arm, and cut two deep lines across her face. The female was… Savage, like Father. Like herself. She fought with recklessness, like this would be her last fight, like her wounds didn’t matter. She fought like a Weapon X and Laura couldn't help but feel kinship through the blood smeared across their faces. 

The Female managed to rip one of her eyes before they disengaged. Laura growled, feeling the eye tissue regrow with uncomfortable agony, and she glanced just in time to see the Female’s face stitch itself up. She stilled, crouched low like an animal and cocked her head to the side.  _ Healing factor? _ The woman stopped, mirroring her actions. 

_ You’re like me _ . She gestured minimally, taking a step to the side. The woman cocked her head with a puzzled expression, imitating her and, slowly, they started to circle each other, like yin and yang. The Female nodded, silent, but with a high range of body expressions that Laura understood perfectly, she displayed, rather openly, the feeling of  _ confusion; surprise; wonder. _

They rotated around the center of the room, maintaining eye contact, and Laura completely ignored the other people in the room. It was like they didn’t exist anymore, nothing did. There was only her and the Weapon. Two killers circling around each other like bloody sharks. 

_ I just want to go home _ . She snarled. A threat,  _ 'and whoever gets in my way will die' _ was clearly implied. They weren’t exactly talking anymore. Laura slumped her shoulders, nodded to the side with a scowl and let her claws retract an inch before springing out again, flexing them. The Female narrowed her eyes at her before letting out a sigh. A deep sorrowful look, a shrug of the shoulders, her hands lowered. The woman felt regretful, but not guilty. It wasn’t her fault, her intent. She nodded to the back of the room, where the machine laid broken. 

_ You… brought me here.  _ Laura realized, the puzzles fitting together. _ But you didn’t mean to. _ The other woman nodded frantically. At this point, they had stopped circling. Laura sheathed her claws before carefully straightening back up.  _ I won’t attack you. _

The woman copied her. 

Eyes narrowed, lips pursed. Posture non-threatening but harsh, challenging.  _ Send me back,  _ she demanded. The Female nodded once, before turning her back to Laura. The gesture was understood.

Laura blinked, just now remembering that they hadn't been alone. Three men, including the younger one she attempted to ambush, were pointing rifles at her with wary gazes. She frowned, tensing up as the woman made frantic hand motions toward the weapons and the ground, but relaxed when Frenchie, the fourth man in the far side of the room with a buzzcut and a small moustache got in the way, putting his hands above two of the rifles and pushing them away. 

“Guys, let her handle it.” He said in a low tone, french accent, Quebecois. The Butcher was hesitant, but nodded after a second. The Female walked to one of the computers before faltering, looking at Frenchie with a pleading look. 

“I’m sorry, mon coeur, but the computer is busted. I can’t turn it back on.” She frowned, before turning to Laura with regret. Laura sighed, but maintained her muscles relaxed and her hands at her side. It wasn’t their fault, the girl told herself. The Female nodded, pleased with the response. 

“Well, what the fuck do we do now?” The Butcher asked right before the ceiling broke behind them, a superhero in blue uniform with the american flag as a cape landing on his knees. Laura snarled, throwing herself into the shadows of the wall before he noticed her presence. 

“How about die?” The blonde hero asked with a sharp smile. “Hello, William, how are you?” The Butcher, William, didn’t hesitate, emptying the rifle into his chest even as all the bullets bounced off. 

“Homelander!” The younger man yelled, heart beating fast.

“How cute.” He commented with a little laugh. His entire posture was  _ wrong  _ to Laura. It was fake, stitched together like a horror show. His body screamed of innocence and justice and mercy but his eyes spoke of rage and bloodlust, his smile was torturous. It reminded her of Rice, of Kimura. Of the people who looked at her and saw a weapon.  _ The Weapon _ . 

“Your wife makes the best omelettes, did you know that? I didn’t, well, not until today at least. Hmm.” Homelander breathed in deep, as if he was still at the table. William threw the rifle on the ground before breaking his hand on the hero’s face. 

“Fuck!” He yelled, cradling his forearm. 

“So, what do you guys have here?” Homelander asked, looking around as if curious. Laura breathed a sigh of relief when his eyes passed over her hiding spot before slinking into the next cover and crawling up to the ceiling again. “When I let you go last time, I thought you’d be like any other pest, y’know. Retreat away to lick your wounds before dying in a hole somewhere. I never,  _ never! _ Thought you’d be ballsy enough to kill A-train. Or get Starlight to betray us. Or blow up Black Noir like you did Translucent.” The mutant, Homelander, spoke with levity, but even Laura could notice the sharp edge that betrayed his rage.

He had impervious skin like Cage; Luke, and she was already behind him. She could just sneak past and vanish into the city. She took a glance at the Female and her companions, they seemed… resigned.

“Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused? Do you!?” He yelled, eyes glowing to the point Laura could see the light even from behind him. She couldn’t abandon them, she realized. Laura growled before pouncing, sinking her six claws deep into Homelander’s back as she fought to stay on top of him. He screamed in pain, and Laura finally found enough leverage to pull out one hand and stab it again, and again, and  _ again.  _

Homelander let out another agonizing scream before grabbing her shoulders from behind, throwing her on the ground with enough strength to turn her spine into paste. She wheezed, feeling all her bones from her neck to her feet shatter. Laura expected Homelander to grab her by the head and rip it out so she wouldn’t heal. She expected him to cut her in half with his eyes or even do the stupid move and try to crush her with a feet in her chest. Instead, he let out another unholy scream, staring at her with half-crazed eyes and shot out of the ceiling clearly terrified. 

Laura felt the Female’s hand gently touching her chest and head, and she allowed herself to fade to the smell of grime and blood coating the woman’s skin, over the delicate scent of palm trees.


	2. X-Factor

_ “Where’s Homefucker? Why isn’t he after us?” _

_ “How the fuck should I know? Just keep driving, dammit.” _

_ “The girl must’ve scared him off somehow.” _

X-23 drifted out of darkness slowly, with murky thoughts and a paralyzed body. She was laying down on a moving object, she noticed, but it took her a couple of minutes for the sense of touch to kick in. The organs knitting itself together, the blood rushing into her chest to pump it up again as her muscles filled itself out. Every time a bone snapped together made her shudder, igniting every nerve in her body, but it wasn’t worse as the pieces too shattered or scattered to bond together. Those were pushed out, perforating the skin until the hole was big enough for the pieces of femur to fall off. 

_ “Great! Can we keep her?” _

_ “Uhm, is she okay?” _

She couldn’t move, she probably didn’t even have enough of her skeleton to support herself yet, but she could still feel her hands, the powerful metal hidden between her knuckles. Her spine popped a second before her legs started burning, slowly entering the same process of healing that her chest just went through. She moaned the fact that her head, half caved and missing an eye, wasn’t as big of a priority to her own body as her limbs, but the assurance that all her metal claws - the one thing she couldn’t replace, were still a part of her allowed her to relax, however slightly due to the pain. 

_ “Oh Mon dieu, this is disgusting. Homelander turned her into toothpaste. She’s not breathing, but there’s movement under her skin and muscles. I- I think she can heal, like Kimiko.” _

_ “Then keep her stable, we’re almost there.” _

Throughout it all, she noticed, a hand slowly caressed the top of her hair on the less damaged side of her head. There were brain bits clumping the strands together, but the hand didn’t seem to care. It kept petting her with gentle movements, and X-2… No,  _ Laura,  _ felt tears gathering in her working eye when the motions brought back memories of Dr-  _ Her mother _ doing the same during late Friday nights, when the guards were too drunk to notice the lead scientist sneaking into the subject’s cell with children’s books in hand. 

Slowly, her body fused itself anew. She was dead tired, her powers would regenerate her body, but it never fixed her mental exhaustion or the feeling of her life being drained for however long it took for it to kick in, but she forced herself to open her eyes and raise herself. 

Her gaze landed immediately on the Female, the woman she was sure was the one caressing her through the healing process. She frowned, closing her fists and lowering her head downward and to the side. Questions, tense but not hostile, like an animal slowly backed into a corner. The Female met her glare with a serious look, body relaxed and hands away from her body. Her right eyebrow twitched and lips pursed, her shoulders hunched.  _ It’s okay, we’re not enemies.  _ She seemed to say.  _ You have my protection, _ The Female indicated, or maybe the gesture could be more apt translated as the gentle tone of a motherly  _ I’ll protect you, I promise. _

There was confusion in Laura’s eyes, a burning inquiry she wasn’t willing to voice it aloud.  _ Why are you doing this? _ the Female simply echoed her gestures from before in answer.  _ You’re like me. _

Laura nodded, unclenching her fist, and raised her head slightly, barring her neck. A woman dressed in white and gold costume at her side grabbed her attention with language dripping of pity.

“How are you feeling?” She asked gently. Laura glared at her, hating her blond hair and her sweet voice like the doctors at the Facility. She didn’t want to talk to her, she didn't want to talk anymore. She was tired, angry, alone and she was already sick of " _ socializing _ " and " _ being normal" _ before all this happened, so she scowled at the girl and turned to the Female. 

The woman smiled at her gently, before lowering her head, letting her bangs cover her face. Laura shook her head. She was fine, she didn't need rest. The woman insisted, and Laura reluctantly allowed herself to fall back asleep. 

She woke up falling. A bump as the van drove down a ramp, the light vanishing suddenly as they entered underground. There was a quiet anticipation in the air, the smell of adrenaline and dopamine. The van skidded to a halt and a moment later Frenchie was out of the car and opening the back doors. 

"Hurry, mon coeur." He murmured gently before his eyes landed on Laura. "Petite fille." Laura jumped out of the van after the blonde woman, warily looking around the dirty garage. William was already opening a small rusty gate, motioning everyone to go through. Laura waited, letting herself be the last in case she decided to bolt. 

The Female noticed, of course she did, but she made no motions, understanding the decision and letting Laura have a clean view of her back as she entered.

"Alright, what the fuck was that?" The Butcher asked as soon as they entered the dirty basement. Frenchie, at his side with a firstaid kit, shrugged as he started to clean the broken hand. 

"I've never seen Homelander so… panicked before." The blonde girl, Starlight, murmured. Laura hunched down uncomfortably, standing in the shadowy corner of the entrance. 

"She hurt him." The man in a green hoodie whispered, realization brimming in his expression. "Homelander never bled before. He probably didn't even know what it's like to feel pain. And she hurt him."

All of them turned to her at the same time, gazes either wary or full of greed, and she snarled, letting out her claws with a sharp  _ snikt.  _ They jumped, startled, but The Female didn't _.  _

_ Would you be willing to share?  _ She frowned, body open. It was an offering, gentle, that Laura could openly refuse. She frowned thinking it over before sheating the claws from one hand as she stepped forward and held an arm up, letting the claw shine in the shady light. 

"Adamantium." She murmured, judging it an information already well-known enough to not be harmful. "Strongest metal." She added when they continued looking at her in confusion. Irritated with their lack of reaction, she waved her arm near a metallic pipe, gently sinking the blade without any strength behind it and cutting the cylinder like warm butter. 

"She's like the bastard daughter of Popclaw and Black Noir." Someone whispered in surprise before being shushed. The Female turned on her pack, glaring at them suspiciously before taking a step forward as well, getting Laura's eye. 

Her head jerked to the side, before her shoulders relaxed gratefully. Laura sighed, thankful, and nodded. 

"Wait, guys. Kimiko is trying to say that the girl is…No, have? Tired? Oh, yes, the girl is tired. Kimiko will be taking care of her." Frenchie translated as Kimiko turned to him, using sign language. "And she also asks to… delay? the questions until tomorrow."

"Great. Sure. Let's just tell Homelander that we're taking a break." Butcher growled in annoyance, but Starlight came to the rescue. 

"Hey! She saved us from that maniac, okay? The least she deserves is one day to get better from getting beaten to a literal pulp!"

"She's right, Butcher. And we're all tired. We can do this tomorrow." Hughie added. 

Butcher growled, pulling his now wrapped hand away from Frenchie as he snapped to his feet. 

"Fine." He murmured before stalking off to one of the rooms. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...And that's all I have. Thank you for reading it!


End file.
